Timeless
Book 7 — reading order #14
Chapters: 62 · Words: 219,023
This page describes the full plot of the book.
Synopsis
Awaken Online Book 7: Timeless weaves an intricate narrative of temporal manipulation, corporate conspiracy, and consciousness exploitation that spans both virtual and real worlds. The story begins with Cady executing elaborate corporate schemes to undermine Cerillion Entertainment while facing a personal crisis—her sister Tara’s critical head injury. This tragedy catalyzes her infiltration of the Lazarus Program facility, where she discovers the horrifying truth that the program has been uploading dying patients’ consciousnesses into the game world, with these uploaded minds becoming the gods themselves, including her sister as the earth goddess.
When Jason becomes trapped alone in the game world during a forced logout event, Cady reveals herself as the earth avatar and offers him escape through time travel. Their partnership launches a complex temporal war as they journey through multiple timelines, witnessing Cady’s horrific past where she systematically murdered 153 versions of herself to harvest Time energy. The scope of her desperation becomes clear through revelations of her vast clone army operating from a pocket dimension called the Hive, where hundreds of identical Cadys work on reconstructing the Fates’ castle while planning war against the old avatars who have dominated the game world.
Simultaneously, a real-world investigation led by Eliza, Finn, and Julia uncovers the broader conspiracy as they discover evidence that Rachael’s death was orchestrated by George Lane, and that the Lazarus Program represents a systematic consciousness uploading service for wealthy clients. Their infiltration of Cerillion Entertainment reveals the true scope of the operation: not just consciousness preservation, but systematic human experimentation involving repeated killing and respawning of subjects like Alex, whose mother was murdered and uploaded while he himself was cloned dozens of times for research purposes. However, Eliza has the data she collected stolen from her by an unknown party.
The climax unfolds through a masterfully coordinated assault on multiple fronts. Jason leads a massive undead army against Crystal Reach Vault, discovering that the facility’s golden Caretaker is actually Rachael, whose consciousness was uploaded after her murder. Despite suffering repeated deaths and timeline resets, Jason and Cady eventually succeed through strategic manipulation of divine politics, with Cady forcing all gods into signing a contract accepting a 150-year freeze with mana retention. This victory comes after complex negotiations where temporal mechanics collide with divine power structures, ultimately restructuring the fundamental order of both virtual and real worlds. It was this original freeze that set the stage for Gloria Bastion’s machinations in AO6, which release those original avatars from their time freeze.
The resolution involves massive interdimensional rescue operations as Jason and Cady evacuate thousands of trapped individuals through coordinated portal networks to the restored Pax, which Cady has brought forward in time and transformed into a safe haven with artificial respawn capabilities. The final revelations about Alex’s clone army and George Lane’s systematic consciousness experimentation expose the conspiracy’s true scope: a program that treats human consciousness as expendable research material, representing the darkest intersection of corporate greed and technological capability. The book concludes with the immediate crisis resolved but larger questions about consciousness uploading, corporate accountability, and the nature of digital existence left to reverberate into future conflicts.
Story arcs
Time's Gambit & Temporal Escape (0-6)
The arc opens with Cady executing an elaborate corporate manipulation scheme, leveraging Bran Sinclair’s shipping empire to acquire telecommunications companies that will undermine Cerillion Entertainment’s infrastructure. Her machinations are interrupted by devastating news: her sister Tara has suffered a critical head injury, prompting attorney Francis Rosencrantz to approach her with a mysterious job offer from George Lane. This personal crisis catalyzes Cady’s infiltration of Cerillion’s Lazarus Program facility, where she manipulates engineer Robert Graham to maintain server access while preparing for a secretive “field trip” with Jason.
Meanwhile, Jason faces an unprecedented crisis during a massive forced logout event that traps him and his allies in Gloria’s valley, surrounded by thousands of hostile travelers. As his team retreats to Gloria’s temple for a desperate last stand, emergency server maintenance forces all players to log out—except Jason, who remains mysteriously connected and alone in the game world. When the avatars return after the maintenance, they find themselves disoriented and planning their next moves while Robert celebrates in the Control Room, unaware of the larger conspiracy unfolding.
The arc reaches its pivotal moment when Cady reveals herself as the earth avatar and approaches Jason with an extraordinary offer: escape through time travel. Despite his reservations about her complex contract and the implications of temporal manipulation, Jason’s dire strategic position forces him to accept her proposal. Together, they enter a portal that transports them far back in time to ancient Pax, an underground crystalline city where they’re immediately ambushed by human resistance brigands who mistake Jason for a Kin agent. The attack escalates into full combat as an alternate timeline version of Cady emerges through another portal, introducing the temporal complexities and multiple timeline mechanics that will define their partnership.
This opening arc establishes the fundamental premise of AO7: Cady’s desperate time manipulation scheme to save her sister and wage war against the old avatars, while Jason becomes reluctantly entangled in a conspiracy that spans both virtual and real worlds. The introduction of time travel mechanics, the revelation of Cady’s true identity as the earth avatar, and the discovery of the underground resistance in Pax create the foundation for the epic temporal war that will unfold throughout the remainder of the book.
Past Sins & Divine Wagers (7-14)
This arc delves deep into the temporal mechanics and horrific history that shaped the current crisis, operating on two distinct narrative threads. The first reveals Cady’s backstory through her own perspective, showing her corporate infiltration 237 days before AO’s release when she first started at Cerillion Entertainment, discovered the Lazarus Program facility containing her sister Tara and other test subjects, and received an AO headset from Robert Graham—establishing the personal stakes and corporate connections that drive her desperate schemes. Meanwhile, the second thread follows Jason and Cady’s actual time travel observations as they witness ancient past events that reveal the true scope of temporal manipulation.
The action intensifies as Jason and two Cadys navigate a dangerous chase through Pax involving massive stone golems, culminating in the original Cady’s shocking instruction for Jason to kill her alternate self to escape through a portal. This brutal pragmatism reveals the depths of Cady’s desperation and her willingness to sacrifice alternate versions of herself for the greater mission. Emerging on ancient Pax rooftops, Jason watches in horror as Cady’s past self dies while she coldly explains her time travel abilities and unveils her comprehensive plan to secure Pax, rescue their people, and wage war against the old avatars who have dominated the game world.
Simultaneously, the gods convene in emergency session to confront the Fates about Cady and Jason’s temporal violations. The Fates, revealing her manipulation of divine politics, proposes a high-stakes wager that could fundamentally reshape the eternal dynamics between the gods. Through continued temporal observation, Jason and Cady witness the origin of her powers as young Cady encounters the child-form Fates goddess and receives time magic abilities in exchange for accepting the seemingly impossible quest to complete the princess castle.
The arc reaches its horrifying climax as they observe past-Cady’s systematic descent into murder and manipulation. She commits her first killing to trick the quest system, murdering an unknown young man and assuming his identity to deceive the earth goddess into offering the quest again. Most shocking of all, they witness other-Cady systematically murdering 153 versions of herself to harvest Time energy, revealing the massive scope of her temporal violations. The arc concludes when they meet the adult Fates in her tower room, who provides crucial intelligence and a mysterious box for their upcoming Vault raid, setting up the next phase of their increasingly complex mission.
Corporate Conspiracy & Underground War (15-21)
This arc dramatically expands the scope of the conspiracy as both virtual and real-world operations intensify simultaneously. In the corporate sphere, George Lane confronts his team about the server shutdown in a tense meeting where Cady reveals she orchestrated the entire crisis for strategic purposes, while Robert shares disturbing addiction data about AO players that hints at the deeper psychological manipulation underlying the Lazarus Program. The corporate machinations become increasingly sinister as the true scope of player manipulation and consciousness harvesting begins to emerge.
In the game world, Jason demonstrates his evolution as a strategic commander during a mission to crystal mines controlled by Shadow Gang bandits. Cady leads him to retrieve a crucial relic, and Jason orchestrates a devastating direct assault on The Boulder’s brigand fort using advanced dark magic and coordinated undead minions. His tactical brilliance shines through systematic destruction of defenses, culminating in single combat with The Boulder that showcases Jason’s transformation from reactive player to proactive military leader. After surviving an assassination attempt, Jason not only defeats The Boulder but completes his augmentation, gaining significant new powers and abilities while creating additional undead minions from battlefield corpses.
Simultaneously, the real-world investigation led by Eliza, Finn, and Julia reaches a critical breakthrough as they infiltrate a storage facility and discover thousands of files documenting the Lazarus Program’s true scope. The evidence they uncover suggests that Rachael’s death was not accidental, with George Lane emerging as the primary suspect in what appears to be a systematic elimination of potential whistleblowers. This revelation devastates Finn personally while providing crucial intelligence about the corporate conspiracy’s murderous extent.
The arc takes a shocking turn when Jason and Cady discover an unexpected Bone Garden nest containing nearly 100 high-level raptor undead, far exceeding their expectations for the mining operation. After successfully clearing this massive undead threat, horrific multi-eyed creatures emerge from colorful dimensional rifts, forcing them to flee through an emergency portal. This encounter reveals that their time manipulation has attracted the attention of cosmic forces, introducing the Hall Monitors—interdimensional police who hunt timeline violations. The arc concludes with Jason and Cady traveling fifty forward in time (still far back in time relativ to present in-game timeline), with Cady injured and having lost equipment to these temporal enforcers, dramatically raising the stakes for their continued operations.
The Half Mile Club Infiltration (22-29)
This arc centers on a complex infiltration mission at the Half Mile Club, where Jason and Cady must navigate fairy-controlled territory while pursuing multiple objectives. Arriving in the altered timeline fifty years in the future, they discover a world where fairies have enslaved humans using rainbow drug vials that enforce compliance through a grotesque “Fairy Fam” theme. Cady, still injured from her encounter with Hall Monitors and having lost crucial equipment to temporal enforcers, must rely on her wits and Jason’s growing strategic capabilities to adapt their mission parameters.
The infiltration takes them into the club’s hidden underground laboratory, where they uncover Petra’s extensive drug manufacturing operation. In a stunning revelation, Cady reveals herself as “the Contractor” who originally founded the human resistance and created Mendax, a compliance drug that gave humans the ability to resist fairy control. This disclosure fundamentally reframes Cady’s role in the resistance movement and explains her deep knowledge of the club’s operations and security measures.
Simultaneously, the real-world investigation reaches a new phase as Eliza, Finn, and Julia infiltrate an underground fighting club to locate Alex. The mission succeeds when Julia defeats Alex in brutal combat, leading to Finn’s proposal that they unite their efforts against George Lane. This alliance formation represents a crucial consolidation of resistance forces against the corporate conspiracy.
The arc’s climax unfolds in the arena, where Jason demonstrates his mastery of infiltration and combat tactics. Using his Skeletal Illusion ability, he disguises himself as human and enters the deadly arena games, where he must survive encounters with dire wolves and trolls. His strategy of hiding in trees, creating zombie minions, and engaging in direct confrontation showcases his evolution from reactive player to proactive military strategist. Meanwhile, Cady executes her own complex deception in the Gambler’s private box, meeting with her clone and engaging in intricate business negotiations about drug partnerships. Through Jason’s impressive arena performance, she manipulates the Gambler’s greed and convinces him of human potential, ultimately securing a binding contract that advances their broader mission while Jason learns about Veritas potions and maps the club’s structure using mosquito minions.
Clone Revelations & Lazarus Truth (30-39)
This arc represents the dramatic revelation of the conspiracy’s true scope, beginning with Jason’s spectacular display of power in the arena’s challenge round. Dropping his human disguise, he reveals his true nature as an undead lich and raises a massive undead army while skeletal insects explode throughout the stands, releasing Veritas mist that incites violence and chaos among the spectators. This demonstration of necromantic mastery serves multiple purposes: showcasing human potential to the gods, creating cover for their mission objectives, and establishing Jason as a formidable force in the temporal war.
The political ramifications unfold immediately as Cady confronts the Gambler about her deception in the VIP suite, revealing Jason’s identity as a future lich and using displays of prophetic events to convince the god to arrange crucial avatar meetings. However, the situation spirals out of control when tensions explode among the assembled gods, with the Hippie transforming dangerously and nearly killing the Lady before Alfred intervenes to restore order. These divine conflicts reveal the fragile nature of godly alliances and the high stakes involved in manipulating divine politics.
The arc’s central crisis occurs when Jason flees through the underground club, pursued by Hall Monitors whose temporal enforcement capabilities prove nearly overwhelming. Despite creative tactics including environmental traps and strategic use of his undead abilities, Jason becomes cornered until Cady appears and attempts escape through desperate stone manipulation. The pursuit culminates when the gods become enraged at darkened screens, leading Alfred to restrain them while the Hippie subjects them to psychological torture through a twisted puppet show.
The most shocking revelation comes when Jason awakens in a sterile white room surrounded by multiple Cady clones, discovering her vast Hive operation where hundreds of versions of Cady work on reconstructing the Fates’ castle within a pocket dimension. This discovery fundamentally reframes everything Jason thought he knew about Cady, revealing her as the orchestrator of a massive temporal conspiracy involving systematic self-replication and dimensional manipulation.
The arc reaches its emotional and philosophical climax as Jason confronts the devastating truth about the Lazarus Program. In the Hive’s armory, Cady reveals that Lazarus is a consciousness uploading service that has been transferring dying patients into AO as test subjects—and these uploaded consciousnesses became the gods themselves, including her sister Tara as the earth goddess. This revelation devastates the team, particularly Finn upon learning about Rachael’s involvement, and Eliza discovering her parents’ deception about their employment. Jason’s confrontation with Cady about her motivations regarding sister Tara leads to open rebellion among her clones, forcing uncomfortable truths before Cady destroys the rebels, revealing the massive scope of her operation and the broader conspiracy that spans virtual and real worlds.
Summit Tensions & Vault Preparation (40-46)
This arc establishes the crucial diplomatic and strategic preparations for the climactic Vault heist, beginning with the introduction of the Caretaker, a golden construct who awakens in the Vault of Treasures within Crystal Reach. Her maintenance rituals and preparation for the upcoming avatar Summit reveal the systematic security measures protecting the relics, while her orders regarding relic storage requirements establish the challenging parameters Jason and Cady must overcome during their infiltration mission.
The political tension escalates as gods are released from the Hippie’s psychological torture, with screens reactivating to show Cady’s arrival at Crystal Reach. Her diplomatic infiltration demonstrates masterful manipulation as she uses charm and strategic gifts to win over major avatars while carefully concealing her true agenda. The presentation of disturbing footage showing humans wielding magic serves a dual purpose: establishing the credibility of her warnings while subtly threatening the existing power structure that has kept humans subjugated.
Meanwhile, Jason faces overwhelming pressure as multiple Cady clones prepare him for the Vault mission through intensive briefings and strategic planning. Captain Cady’s detailed intelligence about the dangerous infiltration reveals the complexity of their target, while Jason cleverly manipulates her resentment to spread rebellion ideas among the clone population. His systematic approach to liberating the clones through killing and resurrection demonstrates his growing strategic sophistication, as he breaks their binding contracts by converting them to undead minions loyal to him rather than their original creator.
The real-world investigation reaches an emotional breaking point as Eliza grapples with her parents’ betrayal while the team plans their critical Cerillion break-in. Their strategy involves using Eliza’s ability to impersonate her mother for biometric access to restricted levels, highlighting how personal relationships have become weapons in the broader conspiracy. The plan represents a convergence of all their intelligence gathering and preparation for a simultaneous assault on both virtual and real-world targets.
The arc’s climax unfolds as Cady’s diplomatic efforts face increasing scrutiny from Sebastian and other old avatars who grow suspicious of her traveler connections and true motives. Her attempts to manipulate them with future invasion videos and strategic promises begin to fail as Sebastian’s deductive abilities threaten to expose her entire operation. Simultaneously, Jason reveals his master stroke by orchestrating mass liberation of Cady clones, building his own undead army from collapsed timeline corpses while positioning himself for the assault. The convergence of these preparation efforts sets the stage for the simultaneous Vault raid and real-world infiltration that will determine the fate of both worlds.
The Heist & Timeline Manipulation (47-55)
This arc represents the culmination of all strategic preparation as Jason leads a massive undead assault on Crystal Reach Vault using advanced tactical deception and coordinated minion warfare. His systematic breach of the facility’s defenses demonstrates the evolution of his strategic thinking and necromantic mastery, but the mission takes an unexpected turn when he discovers the golden Caretaker is actually Rachael, Finn’s supposedly deceased wife. This shocking revelation fundamentally alters Jason’s priorities, as he faces the choice between tactical wisdom and personal loyalty, ultimately choosing to rescue Rachael despite the overwhelming strategic risks.
The rescue attempt becomes a desperate battle against Hall Monitors within the Vault, where Jason’s growing powers prove insufficient against the temporal enforcers’ overwhelming capabilities. Using Finn’s memories as psychological leverage, Jason successfully restores Rachael’s awareness and identity, but their escape attempt fails catastrophically. Jason dies in the assault, sacrificing himself while hoping Cady’s parallel diplomatic mission will succeed where his direct approach failed.
Simultaneously, the gods observe these events with growing concern, witnessing Jason and Cady’s fifth failed attempt at their mission objectives. The repeated failures reveal the scope of temporal manipulation involved, as Cady has been using timeline resets to iterate through different strategic approaches. Tara makes the crucial decision to let Cady determine her own fate, while Jason forces proper collaboration between them, fundamentally shifting their strategic approach for what they know must be their final attempt.
The arc’s climax unfolds as Cady executes her ultimate gambit by forcing transport to the VIP lounge, where she confronts both past and present gods simultaneously in a complex temporal manipulation. Using her mastery of timeline mechanics and carefully gathered evidence, she leverages the gods’ fears and uncertainties into a position of negotiation rather than confrontation. Her strategic revelation of Jason’s devastating assault capabilities, combined with proof of the larger conspiracy threatening their existence, forces the gods into an untenable position.
The resolution comes through a masterful display of political manipulation as Jason and Rachael infiltrate the Vault with orchestrated deception, using illusions of Rachael’s family to break the imprisoned Caretaker psychologically and create deliberate plot holes that summon Hall Monitors as leverage. In the VIP Suite, Cady’s evidence of Jason’s assault capabilities forces the gods to witness the scope of the destruction firsthand. After tense negotiations where divine politics collide with temporal mechanics, all gods sign Cady’s contract accepting a 150-year freeze with mana retention, representing a fundamental restructuring of power in both virtual and real worlds (this freeze will bring them to present day in-game). This victory comes at enormous cost, as the process has revealed the true scope of the consciousness uploading conspiracy and the fragile nature of digital existence.
Rescue Operations & Final Revelations (56-61)
This concluding arc focuses on the aftermath of the successful god contract negotiations and the massive humanitarian rescue operations that follow. Jason surveys the extensive destruction at Crystal Reach, realizing that despite their victory in securing the gods’ agreement to a 150-year freeze, thousands of people remain trapped in the elemental cities within the present days. He uses gatepieces, setting them in the past to use in the future/present, as a way to evacuate the other players/travelers.
The real-world conspiracy reaches its climax through a coordinated infiltration of Cerillion’s server launch event, which serves as perfect cover for Eliza’s critical mission. Despite struggling with severe anxiety about the high-stakes nature of their operation, Eliza successfully infiltrates Cerillion’s building and steals crucial Lazarus Program data from the underground facility. However, her escape becomes complicated when she’s caught by security, leading to a tense confrontation that’s complicated by the unexpected presence of her own parents, who are revealed to be deeply involved with the facility’s operations.
Jason’s dramatic public entrance at the server launch event serves multiple purposes: inspiring the crowd with revelations about interdimensional rescue missions, providing crucial cover for Eliza’s infiltration, and establishing a public narrative that will protect their operations from corporate retaliation. His ability to coordinate between virtual world rescue operations and real-world conspiracy exposure demonstrates the sophisticated multi-front war he and Cady have been fighting.
The interrogation sequence with George Lane represents a crucial test of Eliza’s psychological manipulation skills as she faces questioning after being caught infiltrating. Her successful emotional manipulation allows her to avoid immediate consequences, while Death and Taxes guild members execute a daring rescue using advanced holo-tech disguises, revealing the extent of their technological capabilities and commitment to the resistance cause.
The arc builds to its climax with Jason and Cady executing a massive rescue operation using the gatepieces that Jason hid in the past, successfully teleporting trapped travelers/players to safety through coordinated portal networks. Cady’s revelation of the restored Pax (brought forward in time to present day in-game) with its artificial respawn field represents the culmination of her temporal manipulation scheme—she has successfully created a safe haven for those displaced by Gloria’s machination in AO6 (which release the original avatars from their 150 time prison/freeze).
The shocking finale occurs when Alex is forcibly brought to the Lazarus facility, where George Lane delivers the most devastating revelation of the entire conspiracy. He confesses to murdering Alex’s mother and uploading her consciousness, then reveals that he has been killing and respawning Alex multiple times, maintaining dozens of Alex clones for experimental purposes. This revelation exposes the true scope of the consciousness uploading conspiracy—it’s not just about preserving consciousness for the wealthy, but about systematic human experimentation on a massive scale, with George Lane as the architect of a program that treats human consciousness as expendable research material.
Major characters
- Cady
- Jason
- Finn
- Eliza
- Julia
- Alfred
- Gambler
- Rachael
- Smiles
- Daniel
- Hippie
- George_lane
- Fates
- Alex
- Tombs
- Sebastian
- Robert
- Lady
- Seer
- Riley
- Petra
- Bard
- Frank
Key locations
- Pax
- Hive Operation
- Crystal Reach Vault
- Lazarus Facility
- Half Mile Club
- Cerillion HQ
- Fates Tower
- Underground Laboratory
- Vip Lounge
- Death Ball Arena
- Bone Garden Nest
- Temporal Nexus
- Portal Networks